Interested in seeing some art? Why not go the opening and make it an event?

Here are our picks for five shows opening this weekend, from museums to galleries. See them now or drop by in the coming months. Carl Richards: Money. Visualized.Center Of Creative Arts’ Millstone Gallery 524 Trinity Avenue, University City | www.cocastl.org
Opens Thu., Jan. 14. Continues through Mar. 13.
If you read the New York Times, you might recognize Carl Richards’ work from his “Sketch Guy” column, in which Richards explain the intricacies of the finance world to a lay audience through clean and simple drawings. Many of those drawings deal with the poor decisions people make with their own money in everyday situations, and offer solutions on how to rectify the thinking behind them. This interactive exhibition of his work challenges the viewer to visualize their own financial goals and errors using pencils and paper.

Interpretations: 15th Biennial Teapot ExhibitionCraft Alliance Center of Art + Design, 6640 Delmar Boulevard, University City | www.craftalliance.org Opens 6 p.m.
Fri., Jan. 15. Continues through Mar. 20.
There’s a high level of whimsy involved in many of these teapots, but don’t let that blind you to the supreme technical skill behind them. Cathy Barancik’s pots appear to be made of artfully folded fabric, but there’s a fully functional teapot somewhere in there, while Eric Hoefer’s colorful Constructed Teapot looks like a cross between a Coleman lantern and an Art Deco chemistry set. Functionality and ornamentation go hand-in-hand — and sometimes toe-to-toe — in this always popular exhibit.

Lisa Yuskavage’s Piggyback, 2006

Now at CAM.

Spring 2016Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Boulevard | www.camstl.org Opens 7 p.m. Fri., Jan. 15. Continues through Apr. 3.
CAM goes large for its first show of the year, with six artists and one collective all displaying work. Lisa Yuskavage: The Brood collects 25 years of figurative paintings to document the intellectual and stylistic development of the New York-based artist. Yuskavage’s defiant nudes and her seductive palette combine in a way that is both unapologetically confrontational and feminine. The active sculptural works of Arcangelo Sassolino are all crafted to mimic something human, but do so in often terrifying ways. FIGURANTE is a sleekly lethal mouth of metal spikes and unthinkably powerful hydraulic jaws about to crush a knobby bone, still wet with blood and gobbets of flesh.

Variable Views of Functional Artduet, 3526 Washington Avenue | www.duetstl.com
Opens 6 p.m. Fri., Jan. 15. Continues through Feb. 6.
Do viewers’ physical surroundings change their perception of an object? That’s the question at work in duet’s group show, Variable Views of Functional Art. Sarah Harker and Kahlil Irving both create ceramic art, but Harker concentrates on functional work while Irving takes a more sculptural approach to address ideas of cultural markers and symbols. Pieces by Michael Byron, Daniel Raedeke and Luanne Rimel also challenge how the environment shapes your response to the work.

CreaturesArt Saint Louis,1223 Pine Street | www.artstlouis.org
Opens 6 p.m. Sat., Jan. 16. Continues through Feb. 18.
This multimedia group exhibition features work that depicts creatures both real and imagined. Many artists took the theme as a challenge, reimagining organic forms in surprising ways. The rodent in Brent Becker’s Gestalt Mouse is hardly recognizable first, its hairless body lumpen and knurled and apparently held together by stray buckles and rivets. Closer examination reveals other animal faces hidden in the figure, a blobfish sitting atop a deer – or is that a dog? Justin Miller’s Steed is a biomechanical construct of World War II fighter plane scraps and organic materials, with a strategically placed hot dog in lieu of genitalia.